Giving and Receiving
We are well into Advent with thankfulness for a time of preparation of our hearts and spirits. Indications that Christmas is near are all around us: packages in the mail, catalogs searched for just the right gift, online shopping for bargains and convenience, malls filled with people, glitter and decorations.
If you are like most persons, including myself, we focus a lot on giving. After all, are we not reminded: “It is better to give than to receive.” Certainly, with so many needs in the world there is much truth in these words. It may be better to give than to receive but perhaps it is more difficult the other way around: to be the recipient. I find this to be the more challenging of the two and yet, isn’t receiving at the heart of Christmas? I confess that I must remember at times that it is not the content of the package received but the love of a family member or close friend who has given a gift to me. I need more attention to receiving graciously and gratefully.
Have you ever had the experience of no acknowledgment of a gift given or sent in the mail? Perhaps not often, but this leaves us with uncertainty. Was the gift received? Did the recipient dismiss it casually? I have wondered if this is the way God may feel at Christmas. He has given the perfect gift, that of Himself in the form of a little child who came to live and dwell among us, sent to be the Savior of the world. The gift of the Christ child is for anyone and for all; we have only to receive God’s gift with gratitude. Receive and be blessed. May this be the season when we open our hearts to do just that at Christmas and in the coming year.
“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming; but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him;
Still, the dear Lord enters in.”
Sue Darlington Woods
with an inspiration from Dr. Richard Lancaster, (now among the saints in heaven.)
If you are like most persons, including myself, we focus a lot on giving. After all, are we not reminded: “It is better to give than to receive.” Certainly, with so many needs in the world there is much truth in these words. It may be better to give than to receive but perhaps it is more difficult the other way around: to be the recipient. I find this to be the more challenging of the two and yet, isn’t receiving at the heart of Christmas? I confess that I must remember at times that it is not the content of the package received but the love of a family member or close friend who has given a gift to me. I need more attention to receiving graciously and gratefully.
Have you ever had the experience of no acknowledgment of a gift given or sent in the mail? Perhaps not often, but this leaves us with uncertainty. Was the gift received? Did the recipient dismiss it casually? I have wondered if this is the way God may feel at Christmas. He has given the perfect gift, that of Himself in the form of a little child who came to live and dwell among us, sent to be the Savior of the world. The gift of the Christ child is for anyone and for all; we have only to receive God’s gift with gratitude. Receive and be blessed. May this be the season when we open our hearts to do just that at Christmas and in the coming year.
“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming; but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him;
Still, the dear Lord enters in.”
Sue Darlington Woods
with an inspiration from Dr. Richard Lancaster, (now among the saints in heaven.)
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